Homecoming - prologue
by Soulfire Stories
Summary: Julie and Ben are letting their feelings sink in


Title: Homecoming - prologue  
Author: Soulfire Stories  
Summary: Julie misses her friends and Ben.   
  
"I tried cooking last night but well let's just say I almost burned down the kitchen"  
Julie Emmerick giggled softly into the cell phone as she made her way up the cement stairs to her one bedroom apartment.   
"Look Emily, I'm at my apartment now so I'll call you later. Okay talk to you later"   
Julie clicked end on the cell phone and shoved the phone into her purse and grabbed her keys out and unlocked the door. She pushed the door open and tossed her purse in the corner and walked into the apartment shutting the door behind her and let her eyes scan the room.   
"What a mess"  
Julie started picking up clothes and started to throw them in the bright red hamper that stood in the corner by her purse; Julie grabbed her favorite purple sweater with a hood and threw it in the hamper, she looked by the hamper and noticed that something had fallen out of the sweater and on the carpet.   
"I wonder what this is"  
Julie picked up the object by the hamper and noticed it was a picture. Julie stared at the picture with a sad look in her eyes; she traced her fingers across the picture looking at the four people in the picture; her eyes stopped as did her fingers as she saw Ben's face.   
"Ben…"  
Julie's voice was quiet but the pain was evident; Julie shook her head and put the picture down on her wooden desk and started to put the rest of the clothes in the hamper but the feelings were still in her mind. She had been living in Seattle for 3 ½ months and she thought she had gotten over leaving Felicity and the gang back in New York but seeing that picture brought old and unsettled feelings back. She had left without getting the one thing she wanted… Ben. She still loved him and she couldn't ignore and deny that, she had told him she was over him but only when she was alone she would think of better times for them and then cry herself to sleep.   
"You're such a drama queen"  
Julie pushed herself up and walked over to her desk and took out a piece of paper and grabbed a pen and started to write a letter she should of wrote a long time ago.   
  
:::In New York… Ben and Sean's dorm room:::  
  
"Any mail for me Sean?"  
Ben sat down on the couch and ran his fingers through his hair; he was having the worst day, him and Felicity had yet another fight and this time he had no idea what it was about. Ben didn't know what they fought about nowadays, maybe it was just something to fight about was what he wanted, to yell, to vent… to vent what? His anger… but mostly his depression. Nowadays he was feeling depressed, not because of his fights with Felicity but because of the disappearance of Julie. She had left over 3 months ago and he hadn't gotten one phone call or a letter, this was him and Julie, they were special, they made sense, a lot more sense that him and Felicity made and she was avoiding him at all costs and that hurt him.   
"Um let me see"  
Sean's voice didn't seem to affect Ben's state of silence. Ben just nodded slowly and let the music Meghan was playing invade his ears and mind, the music pounding.   
"Shut off that music!! Now Meghan!!"  
Ben waited for the music to turn off but when he heard the music become louder he felt his anger start to rise.  
"Dammit! I mean it now Meghan! Do it before I get off this couch and if I get off this couch I am going to kick your butt!"  
  
Meghan listened to Ben's scream and deep down she knew she should just turn the stupid radio off but she knew she wouldn't. Meghan put her hair up and peeked her head out of the room her and Sean shared and stared straight at Ben and when she saw him looking at her she flipped him off.   
  
Sean watched from behind the kitchen counter in humor and shock as he saw what was going on, he had thought it was funny when Ben had yelled and he thought it was hilarious when Meghan flipped Ben off but the look on Ben's face wasn't funny, it was scary. Ben wasn't in a very good mood today and Sean knew first hand how mad Ben could get and how horrible he acted when he was mad.   
  
Ben still sat on the couch and watched Meghan stand outside her bedroom door with a wicked smile on her face; he watched her emerge out of the hallway and walk into the living room and into the kitchen next to Sean smiling the whole time.   
"Apologize for flipping me off now"  
Ben's jaw flinched.   
  
Meghan ran her fingers through Sean's hair and shook her head no teasingly as Sean looked through the mail trying to avoid the whole conversation.   
"No way I'm going to apologize Mr. Depression"  
Sean popped his head up and looked back at Meghan warning her not to go there.   
"What Sean? He is Mr. Depression! I mean come on, she left big whoop, and he should get over it! What's his problem anyways? He's with Felicity and no longer in love with Julie"  
  
Ben lowered his eyes and pushed back the tears that threatened so badly to fall; after a few seconds he looked back up and only anger was in his eyes.   
"I'm going to kill you"  
Ben jumped up from the couch and started to run after Meghan who was running around the kitchen in circles trying to get away from Ben.   
"Help me Sean! He is trying to kill me! He's gone nuts!"  
  
Sean ignored them and finished looking through the mail; his eyes halted to a dead stop when he saw a letter addressed to Ben, his eyes stopped on the name of the sender.   
  
"Julie Emmerick"  
  
Sean watched Meghan whiz past him and he saw Ben about to go past him; Sean grabbed Ben the shirt stopping him.  
"Stop Ben!"  
Ben tried to struggle free.  
"Why?"  
Sean grabbed the letter and shoved it onto Ben's chest.   
"It's a letter… from Julie"  
Ben stopped struggling and let his eyes fall down to the letter that Sean was pushing on his chest; Ben grabbed for the letter and turned it so he could read the face of the envelope.   
  
To: Ben….   
Ben read his address quickly and went down to read Julie's but all he saw was her name, she probably did that on purpose so I wouldn't be able to track her down Ben thought to himself.   
"I'm going over to the couch"  
Ben ignored the concern looks he was getting from Meghan and Sean and walked over to the couch and sat down.   
"I can't believe she wrote him"  
All Sean could do was nod to what Meghan had said.   
  
Ben sat on the couch staring down at the letter trying to decide from opening it up or just keeping it but never opening it; what did it say? Was it good or bad? Just open it he thought. Ben licked his chapped lips and flipped the envelope over and slid his finger under and tore the envelope open and pulled out the letter slowly with care; he let his eyes drown into the letter.   
  
It Read:   
  
Dear Ben-   
  
How do you start a letter that is 3 ½ months over due? I mean do you say hi how are you? Or it's me Julie? I mean come on, we have been through so much the two years we have known each other to start letters to each other so formally. What makes me write this letter to you out of the blue do you ask? Well I had just gotten home from my job and I was cleaning up and I saw a picture of me, you, Felicity, Elena and Noel and it brought back some memories and then my eyes kept wandering to your face and all these unsettled and bottled up emotions were replaying themselves in my mind like a movie and I was sitting here in my one bedroom apartment and I realized that this letter was way over due. I'm living in Seattle now, I went here as a child and it was so great I thought that this would be the perfect place to start over but no matter what I do I see your face wherever I go, is it like that for you? Probably not since you have Felicity, as bad as I want to say you guys make a great couple and I am happy for you, I can't and I'm not. Maybe it's the fact that there is this part of my heart that still loves you and probably will always love you, you were everything to me. I could had never gotten through the rape situation if it wasn't for you, I would probably be alone in my dorm room crying out my eyes and pushing the people I love away if you have never given me the courage to live on with my life. Things are kind of lonely here, I am always expecting to turn around and see you smiling at me with that gorgeous smile of yours, or to walk into my apartment and to find your number on my caller ID, I guess some habits never die huh? One thing I regret the most about leaving the way I did, is that I didn't get the bittersweet long goodbyes with the tears and long hugs and the promises to never forget each other, but if I was given the chance for that I probably would of never left. Well Ben I love you and oh yeah answer your door when someone knocks at it.   
  
Love Julie.   
  
Ben looked at the last sentence of the letter in confusion; he folded the letter up and put it down on his desk and looked up in shock and confusion as he heard a knock on the door.  
"I'll get it Sean, Meghan"  
Ben walked over to the door slowly and frowned… probably Felicity coming to make up with me, what did we fight about again? Ben smiled and opened the door but froze when he saw who was on the side.   
"Julie?"  



End file.
